About the Show

A fresh, new revival of Lorraine Hansberry's classic play about race and home.

Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking play returns to the New York stage. Directed by Tony Award nominee Robert O’Hara, this brand new take at a classic manages to be as provocative and powerful today as it was in 1959.

The play tells the story of Lena Younger, who decides to use her late husband’s life insurance to move her family from their cramped apartment on Chicago’s South Side to a home in another neighborhood. Her son, Walter Lee, has other ideas.

This inventive new revival of an American masterpiece fearlessly questions the American dream in the face of racial and economic struggles.

Critic Reviews (13)

"It’s not as if the play needed help to feel relevant; like all great works it has proved itself incessantly timely...That the play is so prescient does not mean that its story is over. It means that, sadly, it never is."
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"This, 'A Raisin in the Sun' suggests, is another legacy of oppression. Hansberry’s defining work may not be radical in form, but it remains a landmark of radical truth-telling in the theater."
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" 'A Raisin in the Sun' leaves room for hope but always ends with uncertainty. Even when imperfectly staged, her [Hansberry] takes on racism, assimilation, generational divides, and life’s harsh realities and hard choices remain razor-sharp."
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"A spectacular scenic transition dominates the final moment...In his push for a less optimistic ending, O'Hara flattens a text that is full of peaks and valleys."
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The sheer indestructibility of Lorraine Hansberry's pioneering Black drama is on display at the Public, most notably in its ability to withstand Robert O'Hara's directorial touches, some of which are more inspired than others.
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"If you are unfamiliar with the play, this truly is must-see theater... I cannot overemphasize the quality of the acting all around, the brilliance of the dialog... 'A Raisin in the Sun' is one of the truly great American plays of the twentieth century, and everyone connected with this production absolutely does it honor."
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"The acting in this production is superb, and O’Hara, to his credit, guides his players with both sensitivity and wit."
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While Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking play, "A Raisin in the Sun," in the 60th anniversary production first staged at Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2019, remains powerful and engrossing, Robert O’Hara's resolutely innovative production is a mixed blessing. Some will like O’Hara’s additions and changes; other will be averse to them. It will be a matter of personal taste. However, the play does seem less emotional than in previous productions which can be due to the fact the play has been made very familiar from Broadway revivals in both 2004 and 2014 and two movie versions or it can just be that O’Hara’s agenda vitiates it.
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Cast and creative team